Wednesday, August 25, 2010


The first documented use of the word Nerd is in the 1950 Dr. Seuss story, If I Ran the Zoo, in which a boy named Gerald McGrew made a large number of delightfully extravagant claims as to what he would do, if he were in charge at the zoo. Among these was that he would bring a creature known as a Nerd from the land of Ka-Troo. The accompanying illustration showed a grumpy humanoid with unruly hair and sideburns, wearing a black T-shirt. A fitting image, these days, for a nerd.

The term originated in the 1950 book “If I Ran the Zoo”. From the book:
“And then, just to show them, I’ll sail to Ka-Troo. And Bring Back an IT-KUTCH, a PREEP and a PROO, a NERKLE, a NERD, and a SEERSUCKER, too!”
According to the American Heritage Dictionary’s word history. Experts ‘maintain that Dr. Seuss is the true originator of nerd and that the word nerd (“comically unpleasant creature”) was picked up by the five- and six-year-olds of 1950 and passed on to their older siblings, who by 1957, as teenagers, had restricted and specified the meaning to the most comically obnoxious creature of their own class, a “square.”’

Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Hackbloc Santa Cruz
Bocci's Cellar, 140 Encinal Street, Santa Cruz
Last Thursday of every month 6pm

This is our monthly, open meeting for tech-minded people who have an interest in software and hardware projects that benefit the community. We'll share ideas, help each other with projects, geek out in an egalitarian format, and consume mugs of frothy fermented grain beverage in the process (optional). Note: There may be Bocce involved. A background or an interest in computer programming or building computing hardware or electronics.

Hacktivism 101: Practicing Electronic Civil Disobediance
SubRosa, 703 Pacific Ave, Santa Cruz
Thu July 8th, 22nd, Aug 5th, 19th, Sep 2nd, 16th - 5-7:30pm

Wikipedia says that "Hacktivism . . . is the nonviolent use of illegal or legally ambiguous digital tools in pursuit of political ends." The goal of this class is to learn and use these tools in order to create the technical infrastructures needed for radical endeavors. If you have ideas for projects, skills to share, or simply an interest, join us! From programming to electronics to social/network engineering. Let's create opensource projects and knowledgebases that our widespread communities can use.



For Contact email: ubew000@gmail.com